rant Options

[Mommy]

So I have a brother with Asperger's Syndrome which is considered to be a form of autism. He is 14 years old and has about the mental and social capacity of a 6 year old...no joke. My brother plays with 2 kids from down the block who are 6 and 10...because well, thats who he gets along with.. he does not know how to interact with kids his age. Some random ass kid from around the block who is 8 years old, comes over to where they are playing and starts picking on the 6 year old that my brother is playing with. My brother tells the kid he needs to go home and quit picking on them. The kid walks over to my brother and starts wacking him with a stick. My brother grabs him by the shirt and tells him to go home. The kid leaves. 10 minutes later the cops show up to arrest my brother for assault on a child under the age of 10, which is a Class C Felony... meaning that he could serve time in Juvie or be sent to a mental retardation facility. The cop is a real ass even when my mom is telling him that my brother has a mental disorder that is documented with the state because he is in special needs classes. Finally, the kid's mom says that she is going to hold off on pressing charges this time, but if it happens again she will. My brother's two friends told the exact same story to the police officer as my brother did, meaning that he was just protecting himself and those two kids. The police officer told my mom that had the lady wanted to press charges, my brother would be going to jail.... no questions asked

Is that bullshit or what? Apparently, if anyone over the age of 10 touches another kid under the age of 10, regardless of circumstances, the older kid could go to jail if the guardian of the younger kid decides to press charges....this is regardless of who starts it.

I think that is a little ridiculous if you ask me.

[Mommy]

I just think its sad that there arent better laws to protect children with DOCUMENTED mental disabilities. Additionally, my brother didnt do anything wrong. He was protecting his friends.

I dont care if this message board is public... Im going to say this anyways...

If my brother were to have gotten arrested today, I would have jumped in my truck, driven to El Paso, and done some very illegal things. I seriously think that this country has taken a turn for the worst. Our legislature is so busy making laws to protect trees that they forget about what really needs to be done....

and dont even get me started on the education system here in Texas and their complete inability to hire competent special ed teachers. I wouldnt be surprised if every graduating high school senior from the class of 2015 doesnt know how to read. Our education system is complete shit.

[Aaron]

Our education system is complete shit.

I agree with you completely.

Those graduating seniors in 2015 may not be able to read at a fifth-grade level, but damn if they can't pass the shit out of standardized tests!

Why doesn't the government recognize the problem?

It's easy:

1. Government, embarassed that the rest of the civilized world is kicking our ass in math and science, mandates that students must take standardized tests in hopes of both increasing our standing in this area as well as accurately measuring how good of a job the education system does in preparing future generations for the "real world."

2. School districts and administrators, fearful of losing funding and/or their jobs, focus entirely too much attention on teaching for the standardized exams - e.g. prepping students for the test - that students score highly on the exams but really don't know much about shit.

3. Students, upon graduating from high school, are wholly unprepared for the academic rigors of higher education.

The healthcare system needs to be blown to shit and rebuilt, but I don't have a three-step explanation of why it's so fucked up so I'll just leave it to your imagination.

[Mommy]

I agree with you completely.

Those graduating seniors in 2015 may not be able to read at a fifth-grade level, but damn if they can't pass the shit out of standardized tests!

Why doesn't the government recognize the problem?

It's easy:

1. Government, embarassed that the rest of the civilized world is kicking our ass in math and science, mandates that students must take standardized tests in hopes of both increasing our standing in this area as well as accurately measuring how good of a job the education system does in preparing future generations for the "real world."

2. School districts and administrators, fearful of losing funding and/or their jobs, focus entirely too much attention on teaching for the standardized exams - e.g. prepping students for the test - that students score highly on the exams but really don't know much about shit.

3. Students, upon graduating from high school, are wholly unprepared for the academic rigors of higher education.

The healthcare system needs to be blown to shit and rebuilt, but I don't have a three-step explanation of why it's so fucked up so I'll just leave it to your imagination.

No shit. I completely agree with everything you said. I went to a private school that hardly even told us how to go about taking that SAT's, let alone teaching what was on it. I didnt do well on my SAT's...got like a 1080 I think. I dont think it measures shit though. I did fine in college and felt more than prepared for all my classes because of the high school I went to